Bees Swarm Philippine Airport

Swarms of bees mysteriously appeared at several air bridges at the Philippines main international airport on Thursday, briefly interrupting the boarding of passengers, an airport spokeswoman said.

The bees swarmed around the control panels of six air bridges, the mobile corridors that connect the aircraft to the terminal, preventing the operators from using the equipment, said airport media officer Consuelo Bungag.

"What we did was use the vacuum cleaners to clear them out of the control panels. We also resorted to manual swatting to hasten the process," she said.

Passengers on two domestic flights were forced to board their flights using mobile stairs because of the insects, said Bungag.

Airport authorities are working with the quarantine bureau to find out where the bees could have come from, she added.



"Sully" Lands at CBS News

CBS announced Thursday that Captain Chesley Sullenberger III, also known as Sully, has been named as Aviation and Safety Expert.  Sullenberger is the U.S. Airways pilot that guilded a plane full of passengers to a safe emergency landing on the Hudson River.

In his new role, Sullenberger will provide analysis of aviation safety, contributing to all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.

CBS News president David Rhodes said, "Sully is a genuine hero."

It was on Jan. 15, 2009, that Sullenberger and his crew safely guided US Airways Flight 1549 to an emergency water landing in New York's frigid Hudson River. His quick response to the loss of two of the plane's engines saved the lives of all 155 people aboard.

Logging 20,000 hours of flight service, Sullenberger retired from US Airways in March 2010.



Space Shuttle Launch Delayed Again

The launch of the US space shuttle Endeavour on its final voyage has been further delayed by technical problems, NASA said on Sunday.

It had been hoped Endeavour would lift off on Monday after Friday's original launch was scrapped, but NASA said this would not now happen due to ongoing problems with the shuttle's electrical systems.

"NASA managers determined it is not possible to launch Endeavour on Monday, which had been the earliest possible liftoff date," the US space agency wrote in a Twitter message on Sunday.

Endeavour is poised to carry a potent, multibillion dollar tool for searching the universe in the second-to-last flight for NASA's 30-year program.

After Endeavour returns from its 14-day mission and Atlantis launches for a final time in June, the space shuttle program will close for good.

That will leave Russia as the sole taxi for astronauts heading to and from the orbiting space lab until a new spaceship is built by a partnership between NASA and private companies, by 2015 at the earliest.
Endeavour will carry to the ISS and leave behind the two-billion-dollar, seven-ton particle physics detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, which will scour the universe for clues as to how it all began.

The flight is to be commanded by Mark Kelly, husband of wounded Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who has completed months of excruciating rehab after being shot in the head during a public gathering last January.

NASA Still Looking at Monday Shuttle Launch

Engineers are still trying to repair the space shuttle Endeavour said they remain hopeful the problem can be resolved in time for the shuttle to launch Monday.

After getting access to Endeavour's engine compartment Saturday after the removal of rocket fuel from the shuttle's tank, technicians narrowed down the problem to two potential causes. They said one of those causes is easy to fix, the other is difficult.

Technicians reported that the problem could be traced to a thermostat, a part that could be replaced in a few hours.

However, the problem could also be related to a controller that routes power to heaters in an auxiliary power unit. In that case, the launch would be delayed until at least May 8 because of the complicated process required to repair or replace the controller.

Further troubleshooting should isolate the cause to one of the two possibilities, managers said.
Mission managers will discuss the options Sunday morning and decide on a launch date. A launch on Monday would be at 2:33 p.m. ET.

Endeavour's launch was called off Friday when heaters in an auxiliary power unit failed. The power units control the shuttle's steering systems during launch and landing.  Many dignitaries including President Obama and the First Family were going to attend last Friday's launch.

RickLimpert.info Picture of the Week: Concourse C

Damage from the tornado that hit the St. Louis airport and has shut down the heaily used Concourse C.

The National Weather Service says a tornado that socked St. Louis' Lambert Airport and nearby suburbs was at least an EF3 on the tornado-strength scale and followed an eerily similar path as a devastating 1967 twister than left an estimated $15 million damage.  I'm certain there is a lot more damage this time.